Arbieroo reviewed The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross
Review of 'The Rhesus Chart' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Mysteriously, this book never made it to my on-line shelves the first time I read it.
Second time around, it was fun enough but I found parts repetitive - recapitulating the basic set up of the series once makes sense - especially for people jumping on board at this late stage - but four or more times? (I lost count.) Also Stross appears to think his readers are stupid because it felt like the shenanigans of the plot are explained several times over, too.
There's something going on in this series that I'm not sure I understand. Each book (I think it happens in all of them) picks up some recent or long-lasting trope of pop-culture and uses it as a major plot or thematic element. We've had Occult Nazis, James Bond, Vampires and Superheroes that I can recall off-hand. Several of the books have a bizarre essay about the …
Mysteriously, this book never made it to my on-line shelves the first time I read it.
Second time around, it was fun enough but I found parts repetitive - recapitulating the basic set up of the series once makes sense - especially for people jumping on board at this late stage - but four or more times? (I lost count.) Also Stross appears to think his readers are stupid because it felt like the shenanigans of the plot are explained several times over, too.
There's something going on in this series that I'm not sure I understand. Each book (I think it happens in all of them) picks up some recent or long-lasting trope of pop-culture and uses it as a major plot or thematic element. We've had Occult Nazis, James Bond, Vampires and Superheroes that I can recall off-hand. Several of the books have a bizarre essay about the theme that makes like there's some profound examination of the reasons for the popularity of these themes going on; it seems entirely absent from the actual novels, though and it comes over as trying intellectualise something that is fundamentally silly.
